posted at 4:16 pm on July 31, 2011 by Allahpundit

Via Mediaite, eight intensely annoying minutes for your Debt-Ceiling Sunday viewing pleasure while we await the final terms of a deal. The good news? No terrorist analogies here from Don Lemon, a notable exception to the left’s new New Tone. The bad news? He seems deeply, truly, abidingly uninterested in the policy question at issue, which is whether we can afford a step toward solving America’s debt problem as modest as Reid’s or Boehner’s plan given the magnitude of the crisis. He’d rather talk about the short-term political fallout of the standoff in Congress through the lens of which side is more willing to compromise and therefore, supposedly, less to blame. From that perspective, this is actually a dynamite sneak preview of how the media will react on Wednesday if today’s deal falls apart and we end up hitting the ceiling. If you want to ask someone why they’ve resorted to desperate measures, at least let ’em explain why they think these are desperate times, no? Especially since, per Paul, these measures aren’t as desperate as they might be.

Speaking of which, your exit question via Steve Hayes: What would this deal have looked like if the GOP really refused to compromise?